Happy to you, Riley!

Riley turned 10 today. Yesterday my mom brought this cake over for Easter dinner. Being the slacker mom that I am, I stuck some candles on it (after mom already cut it) and made everyone sing to him. Maya says "Happy to you!" On Saturday we will have his birthday party, if he can make up his mind what he wants to do. The problem is that he wants to play hockey for his birthday, but the ice is melting away for the season. Our ice rink shuts down from April until September. So he can't decide between a bowling party or a swimming party. That's because both choices are unacceptable to him.

That choice thing didn't work when he was a toddler either. He used to have a terrible temper. You know how the expert books say that when you want a child to do something they don't want to do, you give them a choice between two options? Well, he was no dummy. I would say, "Riley, you have to go to bed now. Do you want me to read you this book, or that book?" He would fly into a rage and scream, "I DON'T WANT EITHER BOOK! I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BED!"

One time he had such a terrible tantrum in the car that he took his shoe off and threw it at my head. The car window was open and the shoe flew out the window. Since it was a hand me down shoe that I didn't have to pay for, I decided it was time for a natural consequence and did not pull over. I told him he just lost a shoe. He loves that story now. But it was not so funny at the time.

He has matured a lot since those days. It's hard to believe he is now my easiest child. He still has a bad temper but has learned to keep it under control most of the time. He can be very sweet and caring. His teacher says he is a kind boy. That is one of the qualities I admire most in a person. Happy Birthday, Riley! We love you! Ooh, I just thought of a third party option. Maybe there is still enough snow on Ohlson Mountain for an Extreme Tubing party!

Roasting my husband

I'm treading on thin ice. Last weekend we went out to lunch. Matt ordered a Tuscan chicken wrap or something like that. I was surprised. He hates wraps, always has. He says they are "pretentious". He doesn't understand why they don't just call them burritos. So he's eating this chicken wrap and says "This is just chicken and salad wrapped inside a tortilla!" And you were expecting????A burrito perhaps? Oh boy, if he ever starts his own blog, I'm going to be in deep trouble. He has enough dirt to humiliate me and keep you all laughing for the next 20 years.

Thanks Rob for the link to the high pitched noise that only people under 25 can hear. Rob has been thinking up new uses for the sound, like hooking it up to the cookie jar. I wonder if we can somehow use it for birth control. People who can still hear this sound should not be able to procreate. But then, I wouldn't have three out of my four wonderful children (doh!).

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!
Here are the customary Maya's first Easter photos.

The bubbles were a big hit. Until she dumped the bottle into her Easter basket.

But what I really want to talk about is the saga of biannual family photo. Is it a huge ordeal in all families, or just ours? I only ask my family members to do this twice a year: Christmas and Easter. It's always so difficult in my family, you would think I was asking them to donate a kidney.

First of all, it's hard to get all of us in the same place at the same time. When Sarah was home, we had to wait around for over an hour while she showered, dressed, did her hair and make-up. By the time Sarah was ready, Matt wasn't in the mood anymore.

Today Nanna had to hit the road so we had to do it without her. Just as I announced that we were going ahead with the family photo shoot, Chris hit his head on the corner of the couch and gave himself a goose egg on the forehead. Since there was no blood or broken bones sticking out, I slapped an ice pack on it while he cried and Matt set up the tripod.

A few minutes later Chris was back to his usual cheerful self but then Riley was being uncooperative which made one of the parents mad, I won't name any names. So this is the best we could do. I've included some of the rejects for your entertainment.

I'm comforting Chris while Matt sets up the tripod.

Is the camara on? I better fix Maya's hair!

Okay, everybody smile!

I have no idea what was so funny, but right after this shot things went downhill.

I kind of like this picture the most, except that Maya is not looking at the camara.

Holy Week

There is nothing holy about this week's blog. But I couldn't help thinking about all the Biblical events happening around here. First, all this ash falling on us reminds me of Ash Wednesday. Then when the cloud of ash covered the sun and day turned into night last Saturday, I was reminded of the events following Christ's death. Wednesday as Matt and I attempted to remove some of the ash from our deck, I felt like there was a plague upon us. Oh wait, that's Passover. I'm mixing up my religions. I'm not trying to be funny.

Last Sunday I did a very un-kosher version of a Seder meal at Sunday School with my class. This was the first year I could not find Matzah in Homer, so I had to use wheat crackers. The real Jews get their Matzah sent up from relatives in the lower 48. When I do it for Sunday school, I explain that Passover is what Jesus and his disciples were celebrating at the Last Supper, and relate it to Christianity. I love tradition and the kids love doing the Seder meal. They look forward to it every year.

Wednesday morning we had a new friend over. Blaze needed a place to go for a few hours so his mom could work. At first he was a little nervous because he only remembered coming over for a playdate once before. Sharon dropped him off clutching a new toy, looking sad and nervous. When I asked it he wanted to watch my Thomas the Tank Engine video, he perked right up. But then I couldn't get the TV to switch to video. As I was calling Matt for help, Blaze asked me "How come you don't know how to turn on your own TV?". Maya kept saying "Watch movie?" After I got it working, Blaze said "I knew you could do it!". Then he sat quietly, clutching his new toy and watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Meanwhile, Maya was taking videos off the shelf, out of their cases, and dumping half a can of food in the fish tank. After the third time I had to repremand Maya, Blaze said "I never do anything my mom and dad tell me not to do." He even has the dimples to go along with that statement. He is a month younger than Maya and light years ahead of her in the language department. But what else would we expect from a 3 year old who's mom speaks English, Hebrew and Arabic?


Ash on snow looks like a moonscape.

Last Saturday we went out to dinner with Vince and Alana for Vince's birthday.

Maya had swimming lessons with her preschool class this week.

Wednesday Blaze came over for a playdate.

Matt thinks I look like a dork in my swimming goggles cleaning up ash.

He looks so much cooler in these glacier glasses!

Maya has been really clingy lately. When I asked her if she was going through another "bonding phase" she said "Yes."

Thursday Riley rescued this bird who hit the window and was stunned. We put it in a warm hat lined with wool socks until it recovered and flew away! This is the third bird we have "saved" in this manner.

Maya got to pet the bird, too. Raising another generation of bird rescuers.

April in Alaska. We wake up to snow. It's mostly gone by afternoon.

Maya learns how to color Easter Eggs.

Riley and Chris are old pros.

Chris recently announced that there's no such thing as the Easter Bunny. I told him he won't be getting an Easter basket this year if he doesn't believe. If Riley doesn't believe, he's keeping it to himself.

Blaze singing Twinkle Twinkl Little Star

Living in the shadow of a volcano

There was an article in the Homer News the other day entitled: Living in the shadow of a volcano is a nuisance, but kind of cool...At this point I think it's just a nuisance. This morning I got up at 6:30 because Marina spent the night and she was still on Greear time. So I was giving her a bath between 6:30 and 7:00 when I heard thunder. The first time I thought it was Matt sliding the bathroom door open. The second time I was standing there talking to Matt. I said "do you hear the thunder?". He said, "the volcano must be going off".

I looked out the window and saw dark clouds to the east. Nothing in the west. Within 15 minutes a black cloud blew from the west and turned the sky over our house from dawn to dusk. It was black for about 30 minutes, like an eclipse of the sun. This time, there is no snow falling so the ash is still dry. It blows off the spruce trees like pollen in spring. My dog has an 18 hour bladder but I had to let him out around 10am. When he came in I wiped his paws off with a damp rag. Then I dipped them in a bucket of water and there was about a 1/4" of ash at the bottom of the bucket. When I opened the door to throw the water on the stairs, he slipped out and lay down in the driveway with wet paws. I just got him to come inside and repeated the footwash. Dude is staying inside now until bedtime. I threatened the kids with a spanking for anyone who lets the dog out again. He is like an 86 pound ash magnet. We desperately need it to rain or snow, but I can see the sun trying to shine through the ash fog.

On a more cheerful note...Marina spent the night last night. She and Maya had a sleepover. I am enjoying having a little helper around the house so much, I may never let her go home. She took another bath when Maya woke up. She told me she found a way to get Maya to swallow: by putting a little piece of candy inside each bite of food. I tested her theory by pushing a little nerd inside Maya's mini muffin. It's like giving dogs pills, when you hide the pill inside a piece of meat or cheese. Well, it didn't work on Maya. She still didn't eat her homemade apple cinnamon mini muffin.

The only thing more fun than watching the birds at our feeder is watching the cat.

The boys trying to catch a bird.

Colton gives lessons on how to catch a bird. No luck today.

Maya loves wearing her brothers' hats and gloves.

April Fool!

Maya's little horse on a stick. Matt replaced his batteries the other day. His muzzle wiggles when he whinnies. He would be so cute if he didn't play the Lone Ranger theme. Where's the volume control?

Loose ash all over the deck.

Coloring with Marina. Notice the uneaten mini muffin in the right hand corner.

Marina picked out this cute little ballet dress for Maya. She gave it to Maya for her third birthday.

Scratch what I said earlier. I just lost my little helper to Chris. Chris suddenly remembered that he and Marina used to be great buddies when they were younger.

First Pho, Godspell and Redoubt spews

Thursday morning the volcano blew again. This time the ashes blew towards us. We had a 4 hour warning before the ashfall was due to hit Homer. It was the closest thing to a natural disaster I've ever experienced since the earthquake of 1989 in California. I filled up every container we had with clean water in case something happened to our water supply. Then I shut down and covered every electronic device.

It's more annoying than anything else. Besides wearing masks, I should have worn goggles. The ash gets in your eyes and it's very irritating. Matt told me later that the ash is like tiny shards of glass. They get under your contacts and scratch your eyes. If you use you windshield wipers, they can scratch your windshield. I should have picked the kids up before the ash started to fall, then go home and put my car in the garage where it would have been safe.

But I was having my own natural disaster. The annual tax preparation crisis. I opened my tax organizer for the first time. The cover letter from our fairly new accountant said due back March 20. Oops. I had a panic attack, then got to work while beating myself up for being the queen of disorganization and procrastination. Then I had to drive to the post office during the thickest part of the ash fall to express mail my package so our accountant wouldn't fire me. I'm sure that was really good for my car.

Today I waited in the carwash line for 30 minutes to wash my car. It was the fourth time I had driven by the carwash. The first three times there were cars lined up around the building. Luckily, it's been snowing a lot so most of the ash is wet now and bound to the ground instead of blowing around where it does the most damage. The volcano has been spewing off and on for 5 days. Most of it has not blown high enough to be a danger to us. Matt said last night during dinner: "I wonder what Redoubt's problem is? Why can't it just blow once and get it over with?" Yeah, why can't natural disasters happen when it's convenient for us anyway?

Speaking of Matt, he made his first pot of pho yesterday! I gave him a choice of going with us to see our high school's production of "Godspell", or staying home and learning how to make pho. He chose the latter. He made an excellent batch of pho bo.

I took the kids to see Godspell. Our high school choir puts on a great musical every year. The first time I saw Godspell I was in high school I think. I caught the end on of it on TV during Easter week. I cried my eyes out when they tied Jesus to the chain link fence. My mom said, "What's wrong with you? You never cry when we watch the religious movies and now you're crying because they tied this clown to a chain link fence?"

I've always been deeply affected by symbolism. The high school choir did a great job. They improvised and made it their own. Most of them were dressed in very creative combinations of 7o's and 80's style garb. One kid was dressed as Mario, as in the Mario Brothers video game. Riley and Chris enjoyed the boys wearing hockey jerseys, of course. Instead of a mime, Jesus was a surfer dude. Mary Magdalene was a cheerleader. I had to work hard not to start sobbing when they tied Jesus to the big piece of driftwood hanging from the top of the stage.



Ash on snow

We've been enjoying all the birds coming to our bird feeder. They are going through the bird seed so fast, Matt said we'll have to start buying 40 pound bags.

Maya approved of Daddy's pho.

Leonards in Vietnam/Redoubt blows!

Mt. Redoubt finally blew. The wind is blowing the ashes the other way so we have not had to deal with that problem but our unfortunate neighbors to the north are not so lucky.

I was thrilled today to see pictures of the Leonard Family in Vietnam, picking up their son, Nathan. What a wonderful first day they had together! Check them out on the Leonard Family Blog.